Archive for January, 2008

Well that was embarrassing.
I was just raving about my new favorite fruit to Maxine – Cara Cara Navels, also known as red navels a variety of orange. I went on and on about how surprisingly red they are for oranges, and how much sweeter and tastier they are than regular navel oranges. I just boasted about how they’re like miniature versions of grapefruits growing inside the skin of an orange. Continue reading »

Lots of people are afraid of making risotto at home and are often confined to just eating it at restaurants. This is a shame, because I honestly think it’s a dish better made at home. Many restaurants start the process and spread the partially cooked rice out on trays until an order for risotto is fired, before finishing the dish. Although, it doesn’t make a huge difference, I personally find it detracts from the overall taste. Continue reading »

Fine Wine Tastings at the Irish Wine Board
Maybe it’s the wine equivalent of a lap dance, taste some of the best wines out there, but only enough to make you horny for more but without the opportunity to follow through.However, I went to one of these back in November (Burgundy Reds) and was blown away.Here’s the blurb…
The Wine Board is delighted to offer an opportunity to taste many of the famous wines from the wine world, the wines that often are the exclusive property of the very rich. Continue reading »

I try not to go on too much about the shortcomings of French wine marketing, because there are plenty of them, I don’t pretend to know the whole story, and I don’t wish this to become a single-issue blog. So it’s especially exciting whenever there are signs of things being done a bit differently. Continue reading »

One of the reasons I’ve been scarce around here of late is due to the fact that I am working on a foodie business launch. I am hoping those of you based in Ireland would help me out by taking a quick market research survey. It will only take about five minutes and will be of great help to me as I get this launched! It’s completely anonymous, and everything will be kept strictly confidential. If you would like to help, please click here. Continue reading »

Well if you hadn’t guessed it, the dish I was referring to in my previous post was of course a carbonara less the cream. I often make it as a quick supper as it takes about two minutes plus the time to cook the spaghetti. If you buy the pre-cut pancetta, there isn’t even anything to chop, so easy! The key to carbonara is that you get the best ingredients possible, there’s only a few so go all out. Continue reading »

This sauce from the Loire Valley region of France, seems to have a disbuted origine. To the people from the Nantes region, this sauce was created by “mistake” by Clemence, cook of the Marquis de Goulaine, that would have forgoten to use eggs while making a bearnaise sauce for a pike dish that she was cooking for the Marquis. Few years later, Clemence opened her own restaurant in Chebuette, a small village near Nantes. Continue reading »

I am part of an informal dinner club with two friends. Once a month we splash out and try a new restaurant. It’s a great way for us to stay in touch since I have moved away from the city. As we are all food lovers we enjoy indulging ourselves. Sometimes we even have four deserts between the three of us!
In December we decided to visit The Farm on Dawson Street, Dublin, a restaurant seemingly specialising in organic and local foods. Continue reading »

I am part of an informal dinner club with two friends. Once a month we splash out and try a new restaurant. It’s a great way for us to stay in touch since I have moved away from the city. As we are all food lovers we enjoy indulging ourselves. Sometimes we even have four deserts between the three of us!
In December we decided to visit The Farm on Dawson Street, Dublin, a restaurant seemingly specialising in organic and local foods. Continue reading »

A nice simple bottle of Champagne for a Wednesday evening to try and stave off the January blues. This non-dosage NV champagne is a blend of a third each of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Meunier, disgorged in Febuary 2007. This is a straight forward bone dry honest champagne, offering a fine mousse, some bready aromas and fresh salty apples on the palate (sounds strange but it’s actually quite tasty) . Continue reading »

How do we pay for the videos and keep all the great features at iFoods free? Simple, advertising! Now banner ads can be a bit annoying and can sometimes make sites ugly so we have a better solution! Video ads! First ads start running next week and here is a little sample of what they will be like. Let us know what you think and if you would prefer banner ads or 10 second video ads before an iFoods video. As always we on iFoods we’ll listen to what you guys, the users, have to say! Continue reading »

There is no recipe today, just a quick post to tell you about our pizza special!! Sarah recently asked me to do a little post on the specials in La Cucina so I’ve decided to do a regular post!! We are also changing our menu at the moment and have added a few new pizzas and taken off some of the less popular items. Continue reading »

It’s video time again at Chew on That! This time we’re showing you how to fillet a fish (yes it is spelled with two Ls)! If you’ve ever wondered how the grocery stores strip those whole fish down to gorgeous fillets for your cooking convenience, then this video is for you!
Jorge Ledezma of Whole Foods was kind enough to demonstrate the process from scaling to avoiding those poisonous fins of the yellowtail snapper! Continue reading »

This was one of our very first ice cream formulations and has proven very popular of the the years. In fact, there is a certain little girl whose first word was reportedly “Jaffa” when demanding this flavour from her parents. It’s a crowd-pleaser, with shredded bits of Jaffa cakes as well as another British invention – marmalade. Continue reading »

This recipe is one of the French classic sauce that is used to complement grilled poultry and deep fried, breaded meats. It is a sauce that is thicken with molecules. It is a sauce that should taste very zesty and peppery, with moderation now!. It has to justify its name: “a la diable” meaning devil’s style.

Muppet News Flash……………………………
Limerick Food Bloggers some of the best in the country
Check out here for the long list of the Irish Blog Awards foodie bloggers.
And here for other Limerick bloggy news. Continue reading »

As promised, Jessica of Blogcrumbs is here to share a guest post on child nutrition. Jessica is a holistic nutritionist and has some wonderful information on her blog. There are some awesome ideas here and many great suggestions. Thanks Jessica for sharing! Head over Blogcrumbs to read more!
Research has shown that childhood obesity has become a pandemic in today’s society. Continue reading »

Somewhere in my wanderings though the BlogosphereI came across a debate about whether people continueto bake in their own homes or not.I have to admit that this question does not even dawn on me.While we have so many good bakeries and coffee shops in Dublin,home baking always seems the most attractive option.Many shop bought confectionerys are very sweet and whiletasty, are less substantial for cold Winter living. Continue reading »

I had no real idea what Channel 4 was up to with it’s ‘Big Food Fight’. The whole concept didn’t make much sense to me at all. And the only bit I ended up watching was Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s (HFW) Chicken shows.Has it hit sales of chicken? I’m not entirely sure. All I know is that I haven’t bought any of the cheap stuff myself since watching it. In fact, I haven’t bought chicken at all. Continue reading »

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This November The Great Irish Bake is back and Kitchen Hero Donal Skehan is helping out with sharing recipes and promoting the event. The Great Irish Bake is in aid of helping sick and seriously ill children get the treatment they need. Head over to The Great Irish Bake to register online and be in the chance of winning a trip to New York when you help raise funds for Temple Street Children’s University Hospital. The site also has hints, tips, recipes and all that goes with an event like this.

This is the Facebook for The Great Irish Bake and of course the Twitter hashtag is: #thegreatirishbake

The Great Irish Bake organisers have shared a recipe with us and also a picture of Donal Skehan with his kids from his first marriage. Some of this might be a lie.

The Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. In a standalone mixture beat together the butter and sugar. Add in the egg and
mix through.
3. Using a wooden spoon mix through the flour, baking powder, salt, mixed spice
and vanilla extract until you have a biscuit dough.
4. Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and roll out to about 1cm in thickness.
5. Cut out biscuit shapes, place on the lined baking tray, then using a smaller cutter
or a small knife cut out the center of each cookie.
6. Sprinkle the crushed sweets into the centre of the cookie and place in the oven
7. Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire
wrack.

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